


Redemption

by BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount, call_me_divaa



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Baby Nightmare, Fluff, Gen, I suck at tagging, So I'm sorry for this in advance, This is kinda like a babybones fic?, This is like a non-canon prequel to TLBCAD, not completely, there are mentions of death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:34:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26150485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount/pseuds/BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount, https://archiveofourown.org/users/call_me_divaa/pseuds/call_me_divaa
Summary: Nightmare sobbed, burying his face in the statue's shoulder. He felt heavier than before, and Nightmare could feel the…. things protruding from his back. The guardian could feel through them as well, could feel how they curled around the statue, and how others laid dead on the ground.Or how he was holding a black apple in one of them.So I'm planning for this fic to be a bunch of one-shots surrounding an alternate timeline I made for my fic 'The line between creation and destruction is quite thin.' with BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount. It was a comment thread on chapter 26, and it has some great potential!*IMPORTANT UPDATE ABOUT THE ORIGINAL THREAD*The comment thread that this fic is based on has become completely inaccessible. Wyrm and I wrote so many comments that A03 completely broke on us, sorry about that!
Relationships: AfterDeath - Relationship, Sans/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 107
Kudos: 76





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookwyrmFinallyGotAnAccount/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Line Between Creation And Destruction Is Quite Thin.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25150711) by [call_me_divaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/call_me_divaa/pseuds/call_me_divaa). 



> Hi, so a couple of things.
> 
> -This isn't canon to TLBCAD.  
> -You can find the comment thread this is based off of on chapter 26, good luck reading through it though!  
> -Bookwyrm is an absolute angel and is absolutely inspiring.
> 
> But seriously, Bookwyrm, if you want to be a co-creator just hit me up in the comments section and I'll make you one.

Nightmare was hyperventilating.

"Dream?? Dream, please, tell me this is some sort of cruel, sick prank!" He desperately sobbed, clinging to the statue. 

He wanted this all to be a prank, or a dream, a nightmare, _anything_ other than reality! 

Nightmare wasn't really this….thing, Dream wasn't a statue, and Nightmare didn't actually kill anyone! This isn't, this isn't real, there's no way that this is real!

"Dream, I'm sorry!" Nightmare sobbed, burying his face in the statue's shoulder. He felt heavier than before, and Nightmare could feel the…. _things_ protruding from his back. The guardian could feel through them as well, could feel how they curled around the statue, and how others laid dead on the ground.

Or how he was holding a black apple in one of them.

The black apples, the things that turned him into….this.

Nightmare looked up blearily, using a hand to wipe away the tears from his eye socket. Eye _socket._ He could only see out of one eye now, great.

  
  


The tree of feelings was damaged, and it was quite obviously dying. Torn branches littered the ground along with leaves, blood, marrow, shredded pieces of apple, and bloody pieces of torn fabric.

There were gashes in the trunk, and branches hanging limply. All that was left in its branches were black apples.

_He should just destroy the tree, there was no use for it now._

Nightmare looked back to the frozen face of his brother, and he teared up again.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Dream." Nightmare sobbed again, finally letting go of the statute and curling in on himself, letting the tentacles wrap around him.

He shouldn't taint Dream anymore.

What was he thinking? Eating that black apple? Now look at what happened! This was all _his_ fault!

All of the golden apples were gone because of him! Then Dream had eaten one of the last ones in order to fend _him_ off, and now he's dead. Then, Nightmare had started corrupting the other golden apple, to get rid of all of its positivity. He then started eating it during the corruption process in an attempt to gain more power— taking him out of his insanity. By the time he realized everything that he did, it was far too late.

Nightmare sat by Dream for a while, until he could watch the sunset under the hill where the tree of feelings used to thrive.

But everything was much clearer than normal… 

Great, he has night vision. It was almost as if he was being taunted, being gifted the ability to see his crimes clearly.

It was cold out, and Nightmare couldn't help but shiver slightly. By the bottom of the tree, there was the flag they used to use. It was torn and bloodied, but it would have to do.

Nightmare clumsily got up, almost immediately crying out in pain. Everything hurt, and he could barely stand up. It almost felt as if all of his bones has been shattered. Using the tentacles to help him move, Nightmare managed to make it to the flag.

He winced at the pain in his back as he bent down to pick it up. Nightmare held the material loosely, watching in dismay as the black goop covering his body started getting over it.

"No no no no!" He panted, distressed by the fact that he ruined it.

"I'm sorry, I've ruined everything, I'm sorry." Nightmare sobbed again, clutching it close to his chest. His tentacles suddenly gave out as he crumpled to his knees.

Nightmare sat there and sobbed.

  
  


And he sobbed.

  
  


And he sobbed.

  
  


And he sobbed.

Nightmare sobbed until he felt as if he was completely dry of tears. He limply held the flag as he curled in on himself, shutting his eyes tight.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


It was when he opened his eyes again that he noticed something, there was something glowing on the other side of the tree. Nightmare could feel the positivity radiating off the shiny golden thing.

  
  


...Holy shit, a golden apple survived!?

  
  


Nightmares eye widened as he crawled towards the apple, not having the energy to stand up. As he got closer, he could see that it was in fact, a golden apple.

Nightmare quickly wrapped up the golden apple in the flag, careful not to touch it.

"What….what now?" He asked to no one in particular. No one in particular as expected, didn't answer.

Should he, should he take this back to Dream? Yeah, that seems like a good idea. 

Using his tentacles to get him partially standing, he dragged himself to the statue.

"What….do I do….. Dream?" Nightmare asked the statue as he choked on a sob. As expected, the statue didn't say anything.

  
  
  


He needs to get out of here. He can't stay here anymore. He needs to protect the last golden apple, he needs to get out. He needs to leave.

  
  


He needs to leave!

  
  


'I need to leave'. Nightmare kept on chanting that in his head like a mantra, closing his eyes shut as he willed himself to move. Nightmare flinched as his hand started heating up.

  
  


Why was his hand heating up? That shouldn't be happening…. And there was a faint flickering sound. 

Nightmare opened his eyes to find a dark…. hole? Something, just behind the statue he was holding onto.

He looked down at his hand, and found that it was glowing a similar cyan color as the thing.

Out of curiosity, Nightmare got closer to it.

"Sorry, Dream." He mumbled as he got closer. The surface was almost ripply, and Nightmare flinched as he saw his reflection. He frowned, reaching out his hand to touch it, and he found that it seemed to have opened, showing a different place. 

...Was this a portal? Did he manage to make a portal? How was that…. how was that even possible? Was it safe?

He looked through the portal in curiosity, he should probably try going through it. But he couldn't leave Dream. At the same time, he had to leave, he had to protect the apple. 

Nightmare looked back at Dream, then back at the portal.

"Sorry, Dream" He croaked out. Looking down at the flag which held the apple, he spoke again. "I'll fix this for you, ok?" He laughed lifelessly, looking back at the portal.

Taking in a big breath, Nightmare stepped through the portal.

  
  
  


~~~~

  
  
  


It was a bad idea. He shouldn't have gone through the portal. He should have stayed with Dream.

  
  


People saw him, and they could hurt him. He was scared, but he needed to protect the apple.

Nightmare shivered in fear as he hugged the flag closer to his chest, pressing his back against the tree he was sitting in.

He could hear voices and he instinctively flinched, his tentacles preparing to kill. But he didn't want to hurt anyone, not after the number of people he killed.

The guardian quietly hissed as the two voices came closer, and he looked through the thick branches to the ground, where two figures were visible.

They were getting closer and closer, until they were at the tree he was in.

The larger one looked at the shorter one. The taller one appeared to be floating slightly above the ground— and they were wearing a wispy black robe that looked intimidating. The figure appeared to be a skeleton, even though they had no eye lights.

The shorter figure was looking up at the tree, where Nightmare was sitting.

This person appeared to be a skeleton as well. Their tongue was poking out of their mouth as they peered at Nightmare curiously, a hand on top of their eye sockets to block out the light. 

There were a couple of things Nightmare noticed about their outfit, like the sash which held a bunch of colored glass tubes. Or the hoddie wrapped around their waist. And the huge paintbrush strapped to their back. This person could literally kill him…

"Yeah, you're right, he doesn't belong in this AU. How did he even get here?" The shorter one asked the taller, who just shrugged.

"I don't know. I was with Gen, when he decided to check in on the timeline, called it a gut feeling of his. He checked it out, and he saw this kid in the timeline. We instantly realized he's from an Alternate Universe, and I went to get you." The taller explained swiftly.

"So you didn't see how he got in?" The shorter asked.

The taller shook their head. "Gen might have, but I was doing something else, so I didn't pay attention."

"What were you doing, to miss something like that? Wait no- Reaper, don't answer that. I'd rather not know of your bedroom activities…"

"Hey, it was nothing like that! Besides, you shouldn't say something like that in front of the kid!" The taller— apparently named Reaper— exclaimed.

"How do you even know he's a kid?" The shorter tilted his head to the side in curiosity.

"Ink, have you seen him!? He's shorter than any Sans. Hel- _heck_ , he's shorter than you!" Reaper enthusiastically gestured at Nightmare, who curled up tighter in response.

"Really? That's quite the accomplishment." Ink chuckled, then turned toward Reaper.

"Thank you for alerting me of this, Reaper. I'll deal with this now." Ink shooed Reaper off, who chuckled.

"Bye Ink!" He waved as he floated away, leaving Nightmare and Ink by themselves.

Nightmare barely understood anything from their conversation, but there was one thing he did know, Ink wanted to hurt him, and he had to protect the apple.

"So, kiddo. You gonna tell me your name?" Ink hummed thoughtfully, to which Nightmare hissed defensively.

"So, what? Am I just supposed to call you hiss?" Ink asked Nightmare, who refused to answer.

"Guess that's a yes. Hiss, answer me this, how did you get here?" Ink asked him. Nightmare refused to answer, it wasn't safe to answer him.

Ink looked at Nightmare curiously again. "I wonder what AU are you from? I don't think I've ever made anyone who looks like you… maybe you're from one of the AUs I didn't make?"

Ink rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So you're either from Undertale, Reapertale, or Dreamtale." Nightmare stiffened at the last name.

Dreamtale? Would that happen to be referring to Dream?

"Ah, so you must be from Dreamtale." Ink deduced, having obviously seen Nightmares reaction.

Nightmare tried his best to act indifferent. It must have worked, since Ink didn't bring that up again.

"So you're not? Guess I was wrong." Ink looked off to the side. "Wow, I must be the worst guardian, I can't seem to even keep proper knowledge about who is from what AU." Ink sighed.

"You're a guardian too?" Nightmare asked as he straightened out, causing Ink to smirk.

God damn it, he fell right into the others trap.

"Ah, my assumption that you are from Dreamtale seems to be correct after all!" Ink exclaimed happily.

Nightmare frowned, looking off to the side. _How could he be so stupid and give himself away!?_

"So, now can you tell me your name?" Ink asked once again. Nightmare obviously didn't have a choice at this point.

"I'm Nightmare. What are you going to do about it, beat me?" Nightmare scoffed, trying his best to hide the apple from Ink's view.

"Beat you!? Why on earth would I lay a hand on you!!" Ink asked in shock.

"I don't know. Because I'm the guardian of negativity and I'm bad." Nightmare mocked.

"Bad… why are you bad? Are you saying you're bad because you're the guardian of negativity?" Ink asked him.

"Obviously." Nightmare rolled his eye light.

"That doesn't make sense though. Just because you're the guardian of negativity doesn't make you bad!" Ink exclaimed in dismay.

  
  


What? Ink didn't think so? Was he just lying, or was he telling the truth? 

  
  
  


Is there a possibility that Nightmare could trust him.

"That's what the villagers said." Nightmare shrugged, looking away to hide the tears forming in his eye socket.

"Well, that's dumb! Just because you have to protect negativity doesn't make you bad!" Ink frowned.

Nightmare's tentacles quickly curled their way around him, effectively hiding the flag.

"Heh, that's the first time an adult has told me something like that." Nightmare laughed humourlessly.

"An adult..? Say, how old are you?" Ink asked Nightmare in concern.

  
  


"....Six." Nightmare hesitated before answering.

"Jesus Christ, that's young. I guess Reaper was right in assuming you're a kid." Ink sighed in shock, dragging a hand down the left side of his face.

Nightmares tentacles curled tighter around himself.

"If you're just six, how did you get here?" Ink questioned Nightmare, who had no choice but to answer.

"Made a portal." Nightmare mumbled, to which Ink's eye sockets widened.

"You're six and you can make a portal!? That's insane! You're really good with magic!" Ink gasped.

Nightmare shrugged and turned his face away to hide his blush. He wasn't used to getting compliments.

Ink hummed thoughtfully, then asked Nightmare a weirder question.

"Are you cold? It tends to be quite cold in snowdin, and you're wrapping your tentacles around yourself." Ink pointed out.

After hearing this, Nightmare immediately unwrapped his tentacles from around himself, revealing the flag to Ink. Unfortunately, Ink seemed to have spotted the flag.

"Ooh, what is that you're holding?" He asked in curiosity.

"...My brothers cape." Nightmare told a white lie. 

"Oh, is it? It looks a bit battered up though. Say, how about you come down here, we get out of this AU, and I fix it for you?" Ink proposed.

Nightmare perked up at this. Would Ink really do that for him?

"Are you going to be gentle with it?" Nightmare asked cautiously.

"Of course it is, you got a guardians word. But you'll need to come down here first." Ink swore.

  
  


Should Nightmare do it?

  
  


Every single adult in his life had always been unreliable, always hurting him. The only person he could ever trust was Dream. Nothing good ever came out of trusting adults. But Ink didn't seem like the adults in the village… he seemed caring.

  
  


Was Nightmare really ready to trust someone new?

  
  


"....Ok." He hesitantly answered, moving to climb down the tree.

  
  


He was ready to trust someone new.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ink chuckled at that, quickly placing the pieces of glass onto the small kitchen table, (which was probably NOT a smart idea, putting the glass where the child could easily reach it; but hey, it wasn't like Ink to actually use his common sense).
> 
> Or the chapter where Ink tries to help Nightmare with his tentacles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Diva: So, it's been months.... haha? I'm sorry that this took me so long to write, hopefully I can get the next chapter out sooner. Anyway, Wyrm was the one who gave me the idea for this chapter a couple months ago, but I only got to writing it now.

The glass fell to the floor, shattering immediately— all of the glass shards scattering everywhere.

The loud sound of the breaking glass was quickly replaced by the sound of the kids relatively quite whimpers.

"I-I'm sorry Ink, I didn't mean to b-break another one!" Nightmare trembled, tears springing to life in his eye socket as he brought his arms up, protecting his face. The kids tentacles sharpened, instantly curling around himself.

"Heeey, Marey, kiddo, hey, look at me." Ink smiled, trying to get the goopy skeletons attention. Nightmare whined softly, but looked at him. His eye socket was wide, and his turquoise eye light was smaller than normal, trembling slightly. Did… did the kid think he was going to hit him? "Look, Mare, I'm not mad. I can just make another one. Besides, the whole point of this is to help  _ you _ , right?" He tried his best to give an encouraging smile— and it must have helped, because Nightmare calmed down.

  
  


"Why do you call me that…? My names Nightmare… not Mary." Nightmare sniffed, shuffling away awkwardly as Ink moved closer to him, bending down to clean up the hazardous pieces of glass. Ink chuckled at that, quickly placing the pieces of glass onto the small kitchen table, (which was probably NOT a smart idea, putting the glass where the child could easily reach it; but hey, it wasn't like Ink to actually  _ use  _ his common sense).

"It's a nickname, you know, because the second half of your name is Mare? Do you not like it?" He asked the child, who frowned, looking down at his feet.

"I…..I don't know….." His voice sounded meek, and was kind of hard to hear.

"Hey, if you don't like it that's ok! Just tell me and we can find a nickname that you like!" Ink winked at Nightmare as he unstrapped Broomy from his back, ready to make another glass cup for Nightmare to practice with.

(Maybe it would have been smarter for him to give Nightmare something that  _ isn't  _ glass to practice with. But, hey, Ink likes a bit of chaos every now and then.)

"Here we go, let's see if you'll do better this time." Ink smiled cheerily, gently grabbing one of Nightmares tentacles and wrapping it around the glass.

Nightmare nodded, frowning slightly as he stared at the glass, a determined look on his face.

Ink let go of the tentacle and it fell to the ground— but with much more resistance this time! 

Nightmare winced and opened his mouth to say something, but Ink cut him off before he could say whatever he was planning on saying.

"That was really good! You did way better this time! It's great to see that you're improving." Nightmare froze for a second, looking shocked. 

After getting over his initial shock, Nightmare smiled a wide happy grin— which looked  _ really  _ creepy, but, hey, Ink has a creepy face he uses too, so who is 

he to judge?

"Do you want to continue practicing, or are you done for now?" Ink watched Nightmare ponder it for a moment, and Ink could hear him hum slightly. When Nightmares expression suddenly became sheepish, Ink could guess what he wanted.

"Bedtime?"

"...Sorry."

"No need to apologize, kiddo! If you're tired you can go to sleep, no problem." 

Nightmare looked relieved at that, almost as if he were expecting Ink to answer differently. 

Ink decided to clean all of the broken glass in the tiny kitchen as Nightmare awkward stumbled out— Ink noticed that Nightmare wasn't really that stable on his feet. 

Ink admittedly didn't know much about Dreamtale, it was an AU that existed before he even did; but it was obvious that  _ something _ wasn't right here.

Ink knew that Dreamtale revolved around two guardians who happened to be brothers, Ink already knew that Nightmare was the guardian of negativity, and he couldn't help but wonder about his brother.

In the three weeks that he's been taking care of Nightmare, the only time his positive counterpart was ever mentioned was when it came to that cape— which Nightmare ended up refusing to let him touch. Which was weird.

It was obvious that something happened in Nightmares AU too. Ink wanted to go check it out, but Nightmare freaked out over that, and also Ink didn't really have the time.

He probably needed a babysitter for Nightmare, maybe someone like Life?

If he couldn't return Nightmare to his AU (since the other was  _ very  _ adamant about not going back, also, he was a multiverse traveler, so he'd probably leave again) then he could at least try to be the best parental figure he can!

Huh, him acting like a parent….Weird.

  
  


Ink didn't really have much time to think about it before he was occupied by something else. That something else being a loud banging noise in the living room— quickly followed by a cry of pain from Nightmare.

Ink immediately jumped into action, running into the living room to check on how Nightmare was doing.

Nightmare was sitting on the ground in front of a wall, rubbing his forehead.

"Nightmare!? Are you ok!? What happened??" Ink kneeled down beside him, frowning at the kid.

"I thought that wall was farther away…." Nightmare pouted, and Ink sighed.

"Are you ok with me touching you, Nightmare?" Ink asked, and Nightmare nodded.

"....Why?"

"So I can carry you to your room, avoid you getting into another accident." Ink picked up Nightmare— much to the shock of the other who was still processing his words.

He gasped but quickly leaned into Ink, and the creator noticed fondly that a tentacle was wrapped around his arm.

Ink quickly exited the living room and into the hall, entering Nightmares room.

The room was fairly big, unlike most of the house (apparently he was claustrophobic?), and had a nice airy feel to it.

The walls were a simple white, but the ceiling was painted to look like a galaxy; the stars were even glow in the dark! Nightmare mentioned how much he liked stars, and since there aren't stars in the doodlesphere Ink decided to give him fake stars.

The carpet was a grass green, apparently Nightmare lived outside, so it was comfortable?

Opposite to the door there was a window with quite a large window sill that was filled with fake potted plants— yet another thing that made Nightmare feel comforted.

To the left of the entrance was a large wooden wardrobe used for storing clothes, and a door leading to Nightmares very own private bathroom. 

To the right of the entrance was Nightmares bed, which was pressed with the head against the right wall and the life side of the bed against the wall opposite to the door. Beside Nightmares bed was what was  _ meant  _ to be a toy box, but Nightmare just used it to hide the cape instead. Almost like a nightstand…. Oops, he probably should have given him one of those.

(Ink suspected that Nightmare was hiding something in that cape, but he wasn't gonna confront the kid about it.)

There was also a large bookshelf full of different types of books, apparently Nightmare liked to read? And all of the books were  _ really  _ advanced for a kid.

Other than that the room was pretty empty. Nightmare didn't want anything more than that, which was a good thing considering that he had a lot of trouble moving around without bumping into something.

Ink walked over to the bed, gently setting Nightmare down on it. Ink tucked Nightmare in, causing the other to giggle quietly. "So, do you want me to read you a story, or do you want to read it yourself?" 

"You don't need to read for me… I can read it myself. And I want the book full of fables, please?" Ink quickly made his way over to the bookshelf, pulling out a thick (and  _ very  _ heavy) book.

Nightmare seemed delighted when he saw it, and Ink handed it to him.

"Be careful not to drop it on your face, that thing's like a literal brick."

"Don't worry, I won't." 

Ink nodded slightly, watching Nightmare readjust slightly to be able to be more comfortable while reading.

"Well, if that's settled I'm gonna go. See you later, Nightmare." Ink waved and quickly left the room, but Nightmare was already absorbed in his book.

Ink sighed as he entered the living room, feeling a weight lift off his chest. Huh…. weird. Actually, he felt pretty anxious before…. That's weird.

Ink quickly shook off the weird feeling, grabbing his notebook in preparation to sketch out a new AU. He hadn't been able to do his job properly in a while anyway.

~~~~

"Ink… are you sure you won't get hurt?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me! I have Broomy here to protect me!"

Nightmare stared at Ink in obvious worry, his tentacles waving a tiny bit behind him.

After the kid learned to finally hold something in his tentacles properly (about a week after their first 'lesson') Ink decided that he should learn how to control his tentacles properly, so he asked Nightmare to attack him with them.

  
  


"But what if Broomy can't protect you? What if I hurt you?"

"I think you're underestimating Broomy, and me too. We're both stronger than we look. You won't hurt me, I promise." Nightmare still looked incredibly worried, but slightly comforted by Ink words.

"Ok…. Um, what do I do now?" Nightmare looked puzzled, looking at Ink with his head tilted to the side.

"I dunno, just swing one of them at me!" Ink shrugged. He looked around quickly, making sure that everything was ok. This was a blank AU, so it should be fine to use, right?

Ink looked back to Nightmare, who was frowning at one of his tentacles. It was obvious by Nightmares expression and the way that the tentacle was jerking that Nightmare was trying to move that one.

After a few seconds, the tentacle limply swung at him. It missed by a few inches, but it still swung at him!

"Hey, that was good! Try that again!" Ink encouraged Nightmare, who nodded.

A few seconds later, another tentacle swung his way— much closer than the first one was. Ink couldn't help but grin at that. The rest of Nightmares tentacles were swaying more violently now, sharpened to a point.

This time when Nightmare swung a tentacle at him, another tentacle followed it. Ink found himself needing to jump back to avoid getting hit this time.

"There you go, now you're getting the hand of it!" Ink jumped back to avoid another tentacle, and Nightmare seemed to be proud of himself too. There was a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, I am!" Nightmare let out a giggle, slashing yet again at Ink, who brought our Broomy to block his attack.

Nightmare continued his attack, stepping forward. Ink stepped backwards to avoid his tentacle, exaggerating his movements with Broomy in an attempt to make Nightmare giggle. And it worked, Nightmare was now full on grinning.

After a couple of minutes of Ink blocking both of Nightmare tentacles, a third tentacle joining the mix caught him off guard— causing him to get hit and fall over in shock.

"INK!? Are you ok!? I'm so sorry!!" Nightmare immediately stopped attacking, running forward to check on Ink. 

"I'm fine, Nightmare. See, I'm fine. You didn't hurt me." Ink grinned at Nightmare, sitting up to prove his point.

"T-that's good…. I'm sorry for hitting you!" Nightmare still sounded panicked, so Ink tried to calm him down.

"Hey, that's ok! It's good that you got a hit on me, you're improving!" Ink grinned at Nightmare, trying to make him feel better.

"I guess…." Nightmare looked a bit confused, so Ink decided to distract him.

"Can you use a tentacle to help me get up?" Ink held out a hand to Nightmare, wiggling his fingers. Nightmare nodded, staring at his hand. But after about a minute of waiting, nothing happened.

  
  


"I'm sorry… I can't. It was easier to attack you…" The kid seemed almost…. guilty? He looked to be on the verge of tears.

"That's fine, you're still working. Until then I can just get up by myself." Ink quickly stood up to prove his point, but Nightmare still looked extremely guilty.

Ink held out a hand to Nightmare for the other to grip. "Let's go home now, shall we?" Nightmare looked at Ink, and then slowly grabbed Inks hand with his own.

"Y-yeah…. let's go home."


End file.
